If you’re one of the many people disappointed by Marvel’s take on the Viking mythology in Thor: Love and Thunder, you might find some solace in Robert Egger’s most recent film – The Northman.
(Image credit: IMDb)
Based on the Norse myth that inspired Shakespeare’s Hamlet, The Northman is a very straightforward revenge film. Given Egger’s last film before this one was The Lighthouse, I was expecting more of an artsy twist on this tale as old as time. What I got instead was something like The Witch – Egger’s groundbreaking debut film. That is the perfection of a genre.
In my memory, The Witch was part of a set of A24 films that kickstarted the renaissance of horror in the late 2010s. It did so not by twisting the genre but by perfecting it. Eggers was a master at crafting atmosphere. And the atmosphere was absolutely key to the horror of The Witch.
Eggers does something quite similar in The Northman. Much of the film’s runtime is devoted to shots of landscapes and characters walking about. This is meant to evoke a feeling of visceral naturality. The jagged landscape of Iceland is constantly battered by wind and water. This is a perfect backdrop for a tale about brutal, barebone violence.
(Image credit: Variety)
From the very first shot of the movie, you’re already feeling like you’re a target. As if everything that surrounds you could somehow be hazardous.
Egger’s camera is constantly moving, panning, zooming in. He uses few cuts because cuts would take you out of the surrounding. Long shots make you feel less omnipotent. And whenever the camera leaves a person out of frame, you are subconsciously wondering what they’re up to.
The best part of the film for me is the first act, right before it dives into the main revenge plot. That segment has many thematic values. We get to see our heroes participate in raids against innocent villagers. We see violent acts committed by all sides. We see the line between good and bad blurring. This makes the hero’s journey more layered and complex.
(Image credit: BUSSELTON-DUNSBOROUGH MAIL)
This does not mean that the rest of the film doesn’t do the same. In fact, one of the key developments in the film reminds us that in this world of survival, kingmaking, and backstabbing, no one is to be trusted. But towards the end, the film does become more preoccupied with the main storyline, thus there is less worldbuilding and thematic depth.
By that token, I am also saying that the main story lacks thematic depth. And that is unfortunately true. The idea of fate and free will was set up early in the film. But I feel like the movie did not explore this enough towards the end.
The moral ambiguity of our protagonist, as well as some of the secondary characters, would have benefited from more elaborations, via dialogue or abstract imageries. This is particularly so because the social setting of the story – the presence of slavery, the kingship system, etc. – does lend itself to an exploration of the concept of justice.
All that being said, I don’t hold it against the film for choosing to be so subtle with its core message. This has long been Egger’s preferred way of telling stories. We need not forget that themes of religion and feminism were very sneakily baked into the story of The Witch. Only with later deciphering can we notice these themes explicitly.
Who knows, all the themes I mention above might reveal themselves in certain visual motifs. Perhaps I did not watch carefully enough. After all, with Eggers, every frame is such an aesthetic pleaser that you are so lost in its beauty, that you fail to scrutinize the details.
Most importantly, if one sees The Northman as a simple film about a Viking on a rampage of revenge. If you stop trying to find more depths than the simplicity of the story, you would find yourself with a near-perfect execution of a very worn-out premise.
The film is also epic and really fun to watch. More and more we are seeing indie filmmakers trying their hands at making epics that feel like a blockbuster, but with less market-based constraints. In this sense, The Northman lives in the same space as Denis Villeneuve’s Dune and David Lowery’s The Green Knight.
We should appreciate these films. They remind us that much like the line of morality in the world of Viking, the line between indie flicks and blockbusters is more blurred than we think. So, if Marvel’s God of Thunder fails to satisfy, you can always find something better and more independently produced.
Comments